Germany is right up there with Brazil as all-time global powers in the world’s game. However, Die Mannschaft has been in sharp decline since their last World Cup triumph in 2014. There is of course, blame to go around for that, and Bastian Schweinsteiger says a finger can partially be pointed at Pep Guardiola.
Follow him on this one- as he believes that Pep got the team to shift away from their core values and identity.
“When Pep Guardiola joined Bayern Munich, when he came to the country, everyone believed we have to play this kind of football, like short passes and everything. We were kind of losing our values,” Schweinsteiger said earlier today in an interview on TalkSPORT.
I think most of the other countries were looking at Germany as a fighter, we can run until the end and everything. The strengths got lost through the last seven, eight years.
“We forgot about that and were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other. That’s one of the reasons.”
Is he right?
Hard to say as Pep just won a treble with Manchester City, a club he’s led to five of the last six Premier League titles.
Guardiola also won three Bundesliga titles, two German Cups and a Club World Cup during his three seasons leading Bayern Munich.
Schweini was with him for two of those seasons.
Have tactics and style driven the deterioration?
Too much (quasi) tiki taka? Hard to say, but the last time Germany was elite, Basti was the team captain, so we should hear him out.
Since then Deutschland hasn’t been able to survive the group stage of the last two World Cups. They couldn’t get past the second round at Euro 2020 either.
Today Schweinsteiger, most likely the greatest player in Chicago Fire FC history, works as television pundit, so he is doing his job well by driving this discussion. That is, after all, the main job requirement of that gig- talking about something that gets people talking.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.